The problem with moving the finish line
- Business, Mindset & Self-Trust, Personal Growth
- Written by Denise Oliver
Can we talk about the finish line for a moment?
Not the actual finish line, the imaginary one. The one that lives somewhere in the future. You know, the one that whispers, “When you get there, you’ll finally feel successful.”
Most of us have one and sometimes several. They may sound like…
- When I get my first paying client.
- When I reach a certain income.
- When I have more confidence.
- When I get better at networking.
- When I have more followers.
- When I finally know what I’m doing.
Then, and only then, I’ll feel successful. Then, and only then, I’ll relax. Then, and only then, I’ll know I’m doing okay.
Except something rather inconvenient often happens – you arrive at that milestone and, instead of celebrating, you move the finish line.
The first client becomes ten clients. Ten becomes twenty. Twenty becomes fifty. The goalposts quietly wander off into the distance and you set off after them once again.
Have you noticed this?
You achieve something that once felt important and within days your brain has filed it away under “normal.”
There’s no celebration, acknowledgement or pause, just the next target.
It’s a curious thing.
Imagine climbing a mountain only to discover that every time you reach the summit, someone sticks another mountain behind it.
At some point it’s worth asking who keeps building these mountains? Because it often isn’t reality. It’s expectation.
Business culture has become very good at convincing us that satisfaction is something we earn later. After that next milestone, next launch or next achievement.
But later has a habit of staying later.
This means that many women end up living in a constant state of “not quite there yet” in the form of not successful enough, not visible enough, not experienced enough, not established enough.
And this is a BIGGY – I’m not enough.
It’s exhausting.
And perhaps a little unfair.
Especially when you consider how far you’ve already come.
Think about where you were one year ago.
Three years ago.
Five years ago.
Would the earlier version of you be impressed by what you’ve built? Would she be proud of the conversations you’ve had, the skills you’ve developed, the courage you’ve shown, and the relationships you’ve nurtured?
I suspect she would.
Yet many of us barely give ourselves credit because we’re too busy looking at the next horizon.
This isn’t an argument against goals. Goals matter. Growth matters. Progress matters. But if every achievement immediately becomes the new minimum standard, we’re setting ourselves a game we can never truly win.
Which brings me to questions I don’t think we ask often enough…
- What if success isn’t reaching a finish line?
- What if success is noticing how far you’ve travelled?
- What if enough isn’t a place you arrive at?
- What if enough is something you learn to recognise?
The Enrichment Collective exists because Sami and I believe there is another way to build a business, one that values progress without constant pressure, growth without perpetual dissatisfaction, and ambition without self-punishment.
Perhaps the goal isn’t to stop moving forward. Perhaps the goal is to stop moving the finish line every time you do.
Feeling isolated in business?
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The Enrichment Collective is a community and business growth space for introverted, quietly ambitious women who want to build successful businesses without sacrificing their wellbeing, their values, or the life they actually want to live.
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